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Parkland man shot by deputies in standoff, being held on DV assault charge

PARKLAND, Wash. — A Parkland man is in the Pierce County Jail after a standoff that ended in him being shot by deputies.

Detectives say the man’s young sons called 911, saying he was armed and they feared for their lives.

The situation is being investigated as an officer-involved shooting and domestic violence assault. That classification comes because the standoff started out as two boys calling police for help - with their dad.

But when deputies arrived at the Byrn Mar apartments, their dad would not leave.

And at some point, he was shot.

“I was asleep,” said Martin “Yogi” Roberts, a friend and neighbor. “I was taking a nap. And then I heard all the commotion.”

That incident was the first time Roberts says he knew that Pierce County sheriff’s deputies were outside his friend’s unit at the Byrn Mar apartments.

“They’s on the speaker phone and the sirens, talking about Eric,” said Roberts. “‘Come out the house.’”

So he called the 54-year-old man.

“He’s like ‘Man, they shot me. They shot me,’” said Roberts. “And I’m like ‘For what?’ He’s a good man. He’s a good man.”

According to investigators, the man’s 10-year-old son said he and his 9-year-old brother had locked themselves in a bedroom to escape their father’s wrath. From there, the boys called 911.

“They told the call receiver their father had been drinking and hit them,” said Tacoma police officer Wendy Haddow.

Four minutes after Pierce County sheriff’s deputies arrived, they said the man told them he was armed with a pistol.

“And then a deputy on scene advised dispatch, ‘He says he’s going to shoot at us,’” said Haddow.

At some point, deputies fired at him, striking him in the shoulder. A negotiator helped convince him to leave the apartment. He was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

“And I think his baby mama came through or something and got the kids and whatever,” Roberts said.

The boys lived with their dad, he said.

“Yeah, they’ve been with him the whole time,” Roberts said.

Now Roberts is trying to figure how a single father, ex-military, whom he says is a good man, is now in jail, suspected of threatening his young sons.

“I don’t know why everybody’s depicting him as being a bad man and all that,” said Roberts. “Because all that stuff is untrue. He loved his kids.”

At least for now, the man is being held on first degree assault charges for domestic violence.

Because this shooting involved deputies, it is being investigated by the Pierce County FIT Team.

We hope to learn more about how the encounter turned violent.